City now inspecting 31 boarding homes

Updated 11:36 pm, Friday, March 22, 2013

Inspectors Jose Ramirez (foreground) and Andrew Smart examine a bathroom in a boarding home on Seabrook Drive.

Inspectors Jose Ramirez (foreground) and Andrew Smart examine a bathroom in a boarding home on Seabrook Drive.

Photo: Billy Calzada / San Antonio Express-News

City now inspecting 31 boarding homes

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A team of inspectors fanned out inside Beatriz Reyes-Pineda's boarding home on Seabrook Drive, scribbling notes, taking pictures and exploring virtually every nook and cranny of the modest, three-bedroom structure.

Kathy Prenzler, with the city's health department, peered inside the refrigerator Thursday and used a thermometer to check the kitchen sink water temperature. Two other inspectors employed a tape measurer to gauge the floor space between beds.

Social worker Anabel Marroquin showed Reyes-Pineda, who has been in the boarding home business 37 years, all the forms she had to fill out on her three residents as well as any future clients.

She was one of 31 operators who signed up for a new boarding home permit by the March 1 deadline.

Until now, the city didn't regulate such homes and was unaware of their locations. That changed when a fire at one in August killed four residents.

Jumpstarted by the tragedy, the city overcame various previous bureaucratic squabbles to start regulating them, which it had the authority to do since 2009.

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The permit is part of a boarding home ordinance that was passed by the city in December, which requires boarding homes to undergo annual inspections and maintain a host of safety requirements, including indoor sprinklers.

The homes are defined as one that provide room, board and basic services to three or more elderly or physically/mentally disabled residents.

That only 31 operators signed up “was kind of in the arena of what we expected,” said Roderick Sanchez, director of development services.

In the weeks before the ordinance passed, inspectors visited some 200 potential boarding homes to create a database of the facilities.

Of the 200, about 50 turned out to be boarding homes, Sanchez said. The rest were either other types of facilities, such as halfway houses or assisted living facilities, or had closed by the time the inspection teams returned.

Sanchez said his office continues to work with hospitals and mental health providers that often refer clients to boarding homes in an effort to expand the existing list. Inspectors in the field also may discover scofflaw operators.

“There are probably more out there, but we'll find them,” he said.

Mike Shannon, a development services engineer, said the city followed up with the 20 other suspected boarding homes that didn't sign up by the deadline. Of those, he said, some responded to a city letter telling them they had 10 days to apply for the permit. Some turned out not to be boarding homes.

Altogether, three boarding homes failed to respond to the letters. The city now plans to pursue legal action.

“Our goal is not to shut these people down,” said “We want them to come into compliance, so we're encouraging everyone. But we can take disciplinary action to shut them down.”

Sprinklers added

Operators who signed up by the deadline have until Jan. 1 to install overhead sprinkler systems — one of the more contentious provisions of the new law because of the cost.

Reyes-Pineda was ahead of the game — she already had installed a $20,000 sprinkler system and a $10,000 water tank.

“I want to become an assisted living facility one day, so I had already gotten the sprinklers a year ago,” she said.

Assisted living facilities, licensed and regulated by the state, provide a higher level of care and must have sprinklers.

Other items required by the city ordinance include carbon monoxide detectors, smoke alarms and on-site supervisors when residents are in the home.

Operators of existing boarding homes who missed the deadline will have 30 days to get sprinklers. New boarding homes won't be able to get a city certificate of occupancy — something required to legally do business — until sprinklers are installed.

The sprinkler system requirement didn't turn out as onerous as once thought, Sanchez said.

The actual cost for most boarding homes to add sprinklers is about $8,000 to $12,000, far less than the $30,000 price tag bandied about in the days before the ordinance passed.

“That's still a big chunk of money, but it helped eased the burden” on operators, he said.

Sanchez said reaction to the new law among operators has been “fairly positive.”

“Of course, folks don't like spending the extra money, but what we heard was, 'We want to keep people safe. We want to follow your rules.'”

All 31 inspections are expected to be done by next week, he said.

Reyna Williams, who runs Our Daily Bread boarding home, signed up by the deadline, but said she's not happy about having to comply.

She rents the home she operates. Many who do the same have discovered that owners will increase the rent once they learn their tenants are running a business, she said.

“The rents are skyrocketing,” she said. “Once you tell the owner, 'We got to put in a sprinkler system,' they'll approve of it, but then they say, 'We're gonna up your rent.' And (operators) already aren't making much money.”

Owner Fredrico Padua, who runs a large, two-story boarding home that can serve as many as 16 residents, said his sprinkler system is going to cost $40,000.

“It's a considerable investment,” he said, adding that inspectors found more deficiencies at his place during a follow-up inspection. “But you don't want to operate in hiding. It's important to do the right thing.”

Nancy Murrah, operator of the boarding home that went up in flames in August, is rebuilding the structure, which was declared a public nuisance after the fire, Sanchez said. Her stated plan is to reopen.